"Immunity" new findings on B cells may improve vaccine design

Our body can fine-tune the immune system's response to infection so that it is directly proportional to the immediate threat

An effective immune response to infections and vaccines requires antibodies, which are produced by specific effector B cells of the immune system

Early wave of memory cells

In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institute studied the formation of B cells in the early stages of infection and vaccination in animal models

"We found that there is a broad wave of early memory cells, which seems to be the'default' fate of many activated B cells, and these early memory cells seem to live as long as the traditional late memory cell wave

Can improve vaccine design

The research team also found that the early memory response is evolutionarily conservative, so it is possible to affect the body's B cell response through vaccination

"We believe that reasonable vaccine design may make it possible to manipulate the B cell types that are formed, thereby making the body's defenses more effective," said Vassilis Glaros, the first author of the study and a PhD student in Taras Kreslavsky's research group

The researchers plan to further study how the early B cell response is regulated and the consequences of distorting the response between the fate of effector cells and memory cells

Vital to our body’s defenses

"Memory B cells are essential for our body to resist evolving pathogens, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus mutation that causes COVID-19," Sebastian Ols said

"Limited access to antigen drives generation of early B cell memory while restraining the plasmablast response" .